This thread is for anyone to share about books that they have read or are reading that they think might be edifying or profitable to others here on the forums.
Personally, I'm trying to spend more time reading and as one of the ways to remember what books I have read and what the book is about, I'm writing book reviews. Anyone is welcome to join me in using this thread as accountability and motivation to do this.
~Joy
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[i]Here are the books that I finished reading over the last week.[/i]
[b]Do Hard Things[/b] by Alex and Brett Harris is a book written specifically to teenagers challenging them to defy the low expectations of teens in our society by ‘doing hard things’ for the glory of God. Three strategies in the book are, 1. Do what’s hard for you, 2. Be known for what you do (more than for what you don’t), 3. Pursue excellence, not excuses. In the book there are illustrations of teenagers who have risen to this challenge and have made an impact on their families, churches, communities, states and even globally. Personally this book has encouraged me not to be afraid of doing things that come out of holy ambition, “John Piper, pastor and author, defines a holy ambition as something that you really, really, really want to do—and that God wants you to do also. Some people would call this passion, but it’s passion under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.” The challenges defined by Biblical principles in this book aren’t just for teens but for every Christian who desires to be a vessel used of God for His glory in their generation.
[b]Under Calvin’s Spell[/b] by Deborah Alcock was written in the 1800’s and is an historical fictional account of Geneva during the time of John Calvin. The main characters in this story are a native Genevan who is neither Catholic or Calvinist, his sister who is a former Catholic nun, and his adopted child. Then there is a French Huguenot and his son who have fled France to escape religious persecution. The beginning of the story presents Geneva and it’s leaders as a stern, legalistic society, ruled with a strong hand of discipline to those who violate it’s laws. This is the perspective of the non-Calvinist Genevan. As the story progresses another perspective of Geneva unfolds, particularly of John Calvin. It is through the glimpse that a young French lad has of the great master Calvin in a moment of him receiving news of the imprisonment and death sentence of a beloved student who was out preaching the Gospel. It is behind closed doors, at a moment when he is not aware of the observation of another that the stern theologian wept. From that point on in the story it gives a gentler and kinder view of Geneva and it’s leader. It is a good story and it made me grateful that there was a city of refuge like Geneva for the persecuted Christians of Europe. But it made me even more grateful for America and the freedom our founding fathers ensured that people would have to practice their religion at the dictation of their own conscience and not that of the state.
[b]Myra Sherwood’s Cross and How She Bore it[/b] was published by the Religious Tract Society of London in the 1800’s. It is the story of a Christian girl who was orphaned at a young age and raised in the godly home of her aunt and uncle where she received a sure foundation of ‘the religion of Jesus’. When her half brother and sister and their siblings were suddenly orphaned Myra shouldered the financial, physical, and spiritual responsibility of raising five children, ages 14 and under, herself being twenty-one. These children had lived in a worldly environment where ‘Christian’ was but a title worn by respectable folks. Myra through much prayer and dependence on God lived before them the life of a true follower of Jesus Christ. The children watched her closely and marveled at ‘the real religion of Jesus’ that she faithfully practiced, even when they vexed her sorely and caused grief and pain. Over time they were each won to Christ, some came easily in yielding everything to Christ, while for two of them it was only after hard trials and being broken that they submitted to the lordship of Jesus Christ. It really is a lovely story of a young woman who denied herself, took up her cross and followed Christ by giving her life for these five children and eventually had the joy of seeing each of them also have ‘the real religion of Jesus’.
[b]The Children of Cloverly[/b] was written by Hesba Stretton in the 1800’s. It is the story of two American children who were greatly influenced by their godly mother before her early death. The legacy she left them was an exhortation to make this text their life motto, “Our Father, which art in heaven, thy will be done on earth, as it is done in heaven. Amen.” Ben and Annie were 14 and 11 when they left America to live with their mother’s sister in England. They had a firm resolve to do God’s will, no matter how hard it might be. Their circumstances in England were pleasant, though Ben had the most difficulty accepting the change. Annie was a sweet child who loved to tell people that God is our Father and He wants us to call Him by that name, as well was the blessed words of Jesus, “For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother.” She was a faithful little sister of the Elder Brother and her life was a bright light that drew others to Christ. The story ends with a closer walk with Christ for those who knew Him at the beginning of the story as well as the beginning of walking with Christ for many others. And this came through the influence of a dying mother on her children to do the will of God.
[b]A Bunch of Everlastings[/b] by F.W. Boreham. This little book is about texts that made history, texts that changed the course of a man who in turn changed his world. From Thomas Chalmers, Martin Luther, to Oliver Cromwell and John Knox, there are biographical sketches on the lives of twenty-three great Christian men and the Scripture or saying that was monumental in their conversion and stayed with them to their death. This book gave me a glimpse into some of these lives that I had never seen before, and it also introduced me to new faces and testimonies of the saving power of Jesus Christ: Thomas Chalmers with his total change in preaching after his conversion, Sir John Franklin, the intrepid explorer of the arctic who faithfully shared the Gospel with his men. Thomas Bilney who cried, “Oh God, I am but ‘Little Bilney’, and shall never do any great thing for Thee; but give me the soul of that man, Hugh Latimer, and what wonders he shall do in thy Holy Name.” David Livingstone who gave his life for Africa, faced death many times, endured extreme hardship and much sorrow was enabled to go through all of these things because he viewed the promise of Jesus in Matthew 28:20 as “the word of a gentleman of the most strict and sacred honor, so there’s an end of it!” These are but a few of the lives of the men whose lives are a stirring example to give everything for Jesus Christ! The final man in the book, Stephen Grellet’s text sums up well what should be the driving force in the life of a Christian and the urgency of what lies ahead of every soul – “Eternity! Eternity! Eternity!”
“Oh, the clanging bells of Time!
How their changes rise and fall;
But in undertone sublime,
Sounding clearly through them all
Is a voice that must be heard,
As our moments onward flee;
And it speaketh aye one word, -
Eternity! Eternity!”
Ellen Gates
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